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Hey all, I've been doing a few tests with a couple lenses: Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 AIS and Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 AF. I did a couple night shots tonight and came back with two different renderings of light. The 55mm made the lights into this circular shape, while the 60mm made them into a hex type shape. I'm not sure if this is normal for AIS lenses? If anybody could chime in it'd be great, as I'm pretty confused right now.

One of the strangest lens effect I have ever seen, I dont even want to write about colors. But may be reason for that stars are the modern optics of the street lights. They can be very angular diamond cut like shapes on the light source. If your light source was clean and point light source diffracted like this , this a bad japanese lens. In real optics , point light sources must appear as point images otherwise its a very bad optics. Look for point spread function. Nikon have the worst optics I have ever seen or used.

一向寒山坐
淹留三十年
做来访亲友
太半入黄泉
渐减如残烛
长流似逝川
今朝对孤影
不觉泪双悬
I travelled to Cold Mountain:Stayed here for thirty years.Yesterday looked for family and friends.More than half had gone to Yellow Springs.Slow-burning, life dies like a flame,Never resting, passes like a river.Today I face my lone shadow.Suddenly, the tears flow down.

One of the strangest lens effect I have ever seen, I dont even want to write about colors. But may be reason for that stars are the modern optics of the street lights. They can be very angular diamond cut like shapes on the light source. If your light source was clean and point light source diffracted like this , this a bad japanese lens. In real optics , point light sources must appear as point images otherwise its a very bad optics. Look for point spread function. Nikon have the worst optics I have ever seen or used.

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This is simply untrue, and a load of hogwash.

Neither of those images have unusual looking characteristics for a street lamp at night.

The only thing I see is the difference between a straight bladed aperture and a rounded aperture, perhaps used at a different f/stop which would also affect the appearance of the lights.

I think you might not have noticed this effect as much because the lights were not overexposed as much as they were in these photos.

One more thought. Try taking the same photos but with the lenses wide open. That should not show the spikes.
By the way, your 60mm lens has a 7 blade aperture, correct?

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The intention was to shoot the same scene, same aperture and exposure. I could care less about over exposing the street lamps. Did you see the difference between the two? One has circular orientation and the other pointed hex shape. I wanted to see if this was normal for the AIS lenses.

I didn't shoot either of them through a window, both lenses didn't have any filters on them. Both lenses have 7 aperture blades, the 55mm aperture has a rounder shape when you stop down, and the 60mm has more of a straight shape when you stop down. I've shot lots of cameras but can't remember ever seeing lights that look circular at nighttime.

it is -much- more difficult to get star shaped highlights off a lens that has rounded blades, at any aperture. Straight blade lenses will do it even only two stops down from wide open, if the focus is right.

Hey all, I've been doing a few tests with a couple lenses: Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 AIS and Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 AF. I did a couple night shots tonight and came back with two different renderings of light. The 55mm made the lights into this circular shape, while the 60mm made them into a hex type shape. I'm not sure if this is normal for AIS lenses? If anybody could chime in it'd be great, as I'm pretty confused right now.

What aperture were you using the lenses at? I ask because, notwithstanding all the nonsense about 'bokeh' and the like, if you are using the lens at maximum aperture, the shape of the iris and number of blades has no effect, as it is open and perfectly round.

It appears that the 55mm is behaving normally with the lights themselves heavily overexposed - showing artifacts you wouldn't usually record; and the 60mm looks like it or the filter may need a cleaning.

What aperture were you using the lenses at? I ask because, notwithstanding all the nonsense about 'bokeh' and the like, if you are using the lens at maximum aperture, the shape of the iris and number of blades has no effect, as it is open and perfectly round.

It appears that the 55mm is behaving normally with the lights themselves heavily overexposed - showing artifacts you wouldn't usually record; and the 60mm looks like it or the filter may need a cleaning.

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These were actually both shot at f/8 @ 15 seconds, neither had a filter on, focused at infinity.

Maybe, but in my experience condensation usually gives diffuse halos, not those sharp pointy rays.
I think the 55 is actually pretty well behaved, considering the overexposure (unavoidable) of the lights.